Chandigarh AQI slips to ‘very poor’ category, visibility lower than 2 km

The AQI is defined very poor when a person may get respiratory illness on prolonged exposure to the polluted air.
Meanwhile, the weather department recorded the visibility in Chandigarh between 1 and 2 km in the morning due to haze, mist and smog.

Later, in the afternoon, the visibility improved to 2 and 4 km. On a clear day, visibility stays upto 10 km.

The very poor AQI was analysed on the basis of three Continuous Ambient Air Quality Monitoring Stations (CAAQMS) installed at Sector 22, Sector 25 and Sector 53 in Chandigarh. In Panchkula, CAAQMS was installed in Sector 6.

The two CAAQMSs in Sectors 22 and 53 recorded an AQI of ‘severe’ category with 410 and 453 marks respectively in the afternoon which later came down to below 400.

“The low visibility is the result of heavy presence of pollutant elements in the air. In the absence of speedy winds and rain, polluted elements mixed in the air result in decreased visibility. There might be many reasons behind the heavy pollutants in the air, including stubble burning, vehicular pollution, smoke from firecrackers, dust, etc., Shivinder, a senior scientist with meteorological department, said.

He added that a light rain is expected in some parts of Punjab and Chandigarh in the coming days.

If that happens, things will improve. The minimum temperature will increase after two days, he said.